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Michael E. Lane (D) |
2011 STANDING COMMITTEES: |
"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mike Lane was first elected to the Tompkins County Legislature in 1993. He served three consecutive terms (12 years) during which he was Vice Chair for nine (1997-2005). After a one- term hiatus, he was returned to the Legislature for a fourth term commencing in 2010. He is happy to be back, serving the people of Dryden and Freeville, and all of Tompkins County.
For 2010, Mike is chairing the County’s Government Operations Committee. That committee oversees many county departments, such as County Administration, Assessment, Information Technologies including county-wide broadband access, and the Libraries, to name a few.
He chaired three committees (1994-1995, 2001-2002, 2005) that examined the functions of the County Charter. While chairing the Government Operations Committee after the 2000 federal census, Mike led that committee through legislative redistricting for the 2001 election. In 2010, he is a member of the “full count” Census Committee, and will begin working with the members of the Government Operations Committee to plan for county redistricting for the next election of the Legislature.
Mike Lane is a member of the county’s Facilities and Infrastructure Committee for 2010. In a time of recession, with declining revenues and increased demand for services, it is a monumental task to provide for the safety of our highways and bridges, the maintenance of our buildings and grounds, the long term health of our airport, and the stability of our recycling and solid waste program. People depend on these programs on a daily basis. We have to focus on getting back to basics.
This year the county is taking a serious look at its long-range plan for capital projects. Mike is serving on the Capital Plan Review Committee, a special committee for 2010. Resources for capital improvements are scarce. Even though actual projects will likely need to be delayed until better times, there is still a definite need to plan. For example, we need to examine the condition and capacity of the Tompkins County Public Safety Building. With the New York State Court System seeking additional space in the County Courthouse, space needs must be re-examined for a number of county departments, including the Legislature itself.
Mike Lane is the liaison from the Tompkins County Legislature to the Board of Trustees of the Tompkins Cortland Community College. He previously chaired the two-county Financial Oversight Committee that worked with the college to oversee or commence nearly $30 million in capital improvements.
For three years (1998-2000) Mike Lane was the chairman of the Tompkins County Planning and Environmental Quality Committee. That committee handled not only planning issues but environmental matters as well. Under his leadership, the county’s initiative for planning for vital communities was conceived and funded. That initiative formed a basis for the County’s Comprehensive Plan. That committee also completely reorganized the Water Resources Council and the Environmental Management Council, both of which continue to provide excellent advice to the Tompkins County Legislature that has been well received. Other projects that were overseen by that committee were the designation and plan for the Scenic By-way around Cayuga Lake, and the Cayuga Lake Waterfront Revitalization Plan.
As a member of the Communications Capital Project Committee, Mike worked on projects such as the authorization of the 911 Emergency Communications Building, and the upgrading of the County’s public safety communications system.
In 1996, he chaired the Rural/Urban Coordination Committee that worked extensively to increase cooperation among municipalities regarding issues as varied as purchasing, police, and highway services. Those issues continue to be addressed to this day through our County’s participation in the Tompkins County Council of Governments.
Mike well understands that the key to keeping Tompkins County’s economy vibrant and holding down real property taxes is to encourage reasonable economic growth. He chaired the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency for four years where he was a proponent of using targeted tax incentives to foster the development of new jobs in the manufacturing sector that pay a living wage or better.
Mike Lane is a life resident of the Village of Dryden. He is a product of and is committed to the kind of common sense values that are so much a part of the Dryden and Freeville communities. For Mike, community values means knowing your neighbors, and working together with them to create safe and happy communities that are affordable. To encourage families to live here and to grow here, taxes must be reasonable and services must be available. Mike believes we are blessed to live in this beautiful locale where residences, schools, businesses and farms can thrive together. We must be vigilant to protect our environment in a way that fosters the best interests of people.
Now in his twenty-fifth year in elective office, Mike was mayor of the Village of Dryden for five terms and village trustee before that (1979-1991). Among his accomplishments as mayor, was the planning for and obtaining federal and state funding for a $1.2 million upgrade of the village’s wastewater treatment plant and obtaining a $400,000 federal Community Development Block Grant for targeted rehabilitation to upgrade housing stock for low to moderate income homeowners.
Make Lane was the mayor of the Village of Dryden in 1981 when a severe flash flood devastated a substantial portion of the village. That began a 17-year quest for a flood control project to protect the village, and the lands downstream including Freeville, from a recurrence of such a disaster. In 1998, the $2 million federally funded “Dr. Donald H. Crispell Flood Control Project” on Virgil Creek was completed. That project provides substantial protection from future flooding. The project represents the best in inter-municipal cooperation. It required negotiating agreements with the USDA Soil and Water Conservation Service, Tompkins and Cortland Counties, the Town and Village of Dryden, the Town of Harford, and the Soil and Water Conservation Committees of both counties.
Mike Lane is a life long resident of the Village and Town of Dryden. He is a graduate of Dryden Central School. He earned his B.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his J.D. from the University of Akron, School of Law. He is an attorney. He established a civil practice in Dryden Village in 1979. He is active in his community, serving as Trustee and Secretary of The Southworth Library Association, and is a charter member of the Dryden Sertoma Club. He has been a member of the Dryden Lake Park Committee, the Dryden Bicentennial and Fountain Commitees, the Time Square Park Committee. He chaired the Dryden-Freeville Wastewater Study Commission, which helped plan the sewer system and wastewater plant built in Freeville and the upgrade of the Dryden wastewater plant.
Board members are elected and serve for four years. Current terms run from 2010 through 2013.
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